Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong and NSW Minister for Multiculturalism Steve Kamper have formally responded to a petition by Professor Anastasios Tamis advocating for the establishment of an International Day of the Greek Language by the United Nations and UNESCO.
While both ministers acknowledged the historical and cultural significance of the Greek language, they noted procedural limitations at the UN level and recommended further engagement through parliamentary and community channels. In essence, they still refuse to recognise Greek language with an international day of recognition is simply an insult to all Australian citizens of Greek descent.
Wong’s response is as follows.
“Thank you for your letter regarding a petition from Professor Anastasios Tamis for the creation of an International Day of the Greek Language in the United Nations (UN) and UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Professor Tamis also wrote to me with the same request in May 2024. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade replied on my behalf in June 2024.
The Australian Government recognises the significant role of the Greek language in Ancient Greece and its enduring influence on contemporary Western culture, politics and philosophy. Today, Greek continues to be spoken in Greece and abroad, including in Australia, where it is an important community language passed down through generations of Greek Australians.
The Australian Government notes that Greek is not one of the six UN official languages, and there is currently no precedent for establishing an International Day for a non-official language. Nonetheless, community efforts to celebrate the long history of the Greek language should be supported. I suggest it may be useful to engage with the Chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Greece, Mr Steve Georganas MP to explore ways for parliaments to acknowledge the importance of the Greek language to communities around the world.”
Read the entire letter sent by Anastasios Tamis translated in English below:
A Day of National Pride for the Global Hellenism – UNESCO establishes a World Day of the Greek Language
The Executive Board of UNESCO has proposed the establishment of February 9th as World Greek Language Day, following an initiative by the Permanent Delegation of Greece to the Organisation and its Permanent Representative, Mr Georgios Koumoutsakos, who collaborated closely with a team of university academics led by Mr Georgios Babiniotis and Christos Klairis. This working group of academics, who advocated and diligently promoted the idea, securing letters of support from local governments, ministers, politicians, the Anglican Church, intellectuals, and writers worldwide, was initially formed at the initiative of Professor Ioannis Korinthios, who then invited Professors Georgios Babiniotis, Christos Klairis, Philip Trevezas, Anastasios Tamis, and Stella Priovolou to join.
In Australia, since early 2024, the Australian Institute for Macedonian Studies (AIMS) and the Australian Institute for Hellenic Research coordinated the campaign, sending dozens of letters to the governments of Australia and New Zealand, leaders of Christian churches, university heads, intellectuals, and editors of major Australian newspapers. Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ms Penny Wong, acknowledged the importance and value of the Greek language, but in her letter responding to Professor Tamis’ request, she refrained from supporting Greece’s proposal.
“Australia’s abstention or failure to support the just recognition of the Greek language with an international day of recognition is simply an insult to all Australian citizens of Greek descent,” stated Professor Tamis.
In contrast, the President of the Interparliamentary Union of Friends of Greece, Mr Steve Georganas, showed readiness and an unwavering desire and passion to persuade the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs to support Greece’s proposal.
A particularly noteworthy campaign was led in Australia by the Anglican Archbishop, His Eminence Philip Freier, who, following a written request by AIMS, sent a heartfelt letter of appeal to the Australian Foreign Minister and political leaders, urging them to support Greece’s rightful request regarding the Greek language. Leaders of other Christian denominations in Australia did not respond to the coordinating committee’s request.
Mr Georgios Koumoutsakos, Greece’s Permanent Representative to UNESCO, justly expressed pride—along with all who collaborated with him in this major cultural achievement for Greece. “This is an international recognition of the timelessness, universality, and contribution of our language to the cultural heritage of humanity. It is a day of joy and pride,” he told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA).
In its decision, the UNESCO Executive Board stated that “language is a vehicle of culture, a vessel of values, concepts, and identity; a tool for expression and creation, and a bridge of communication, understanding, and mutual comprehension.” It emphasised that among the world’s thousands of languages, Greek combines four especially significant characteristics:
An unbroken continuity of 4,000 years of oral tradition and 3,500 years of written tradition, taking into account Linear B script, or at least 2,800 years of written tradition if considering only the alphabetic script—making Greek the longest continuously spoken and written language in Europe. The Council recalled the words of poet Giorgos Seferis, who said during his 1963 Nobel Prize in Literature acceptance speech:
“The Greek language has never ceased to be spoken. It has undergone the changes that all living organisms do, but it has never had a break.”
A uniquely cultivated language (in vocabulary, grammar, and syntax), thanks to its use by unparalleled historical figures in literature, poetry, drama, philosophy, politics, and science, such as Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Aeschylus, Thucydides, Hippocrates, Archimedes, and the Fathers of the Church.
A strong presence in many languages, as Greek has historically been one of the most influential languages on all European languages and, through them, on world languages. Its significance is also evident in the fact that it is taught internationally in its Ancient, Byzantine (Medieval), and Modern forms in university departments across the globe.
An inexhaustible source of international scientific terminology, especially in medicine, but also in mathematics, physics, chemistry, engineering, astronomy, quantum mechanics, as well as in the social and humanities sciences. This is a globally recognized attribute of the Greek language, supported by empirical and historical data.
The official memorandum of the UNESCO Executive Committee was authored by distinguished linguistics professors Babiniotis (University of Athens) and Klairis (Sorbonne).
The UNESCO Executive Board emphasizes that, as the linguistic cradle of core concepts in culture, science, and philosophy, the Greek language holds a distinct place among the world’s languages, based on historical and objective criteria.
It also highlights that “the phonological awareness of the Greeks in the 8th century BCE led them to innovatively adapt the Phoenician consonantal script by inventing the alphabet, thereby creating a new vowel-based writing system in which each sound, each phoneme, is represented by a distinct letter.”
Furthermore, it notes that in the post-classical Hellenistic period, Greek became the first international language (lingua franca) for six centuries—a language of trade for many peoples, and simultaneously a cultural language (Kultursprache).
“Greek flourished during the reign of Alexander the Great, was embraced by Roman civilization—which adopted Greek writing through the Latin alphabet—was given universal scope as the language of the Gospels, rediscovered and elevated by the Renaissance, and was maximally utilized by the Enlightenment,” the Executive Board explains in justifying its decision.
The electronic Thesaurus of the Greek Language (Thesaurus Linguae Graecae – TLG), which contains texts written in Greek from Homer to the historians of the 15th century, includes 12,000 texts by 4,000 authors, comprising over 105 million words in all their grammatical forms.
The Executive Board further emphasizes that, historically, the Greek language has played a central role in intellectual development, in linguistic expression, and in the articulation of foundational concepts and words in European and broader intellectual traditions—concepts that are expressed, derived from, or traceable to Greek words.
Based on the above, the UNESCO Executive Board has decided to propose February 9th as “World Greek Language Day,” taking into consideration that this is the date in 1857 on which Dionysios Solomos, Greece’s national poet, passed away.
Haiti: The first country to recognise the Greek Revolution
It is worth noting that UNESCO has already recognized several elements related to the Greek language. Two items of documented cultural heritage—”The lead oracle tablets from the Oracle of Dodona” and the “Derveni Papyrus: The oldest book in Europe”—were inscribed in the Memory of the World Register in 2023 and 2015, respectively.
Additionally, two elements of intangible cultural heritage were recognized: the “Polyphonic Caravan,” which studies, preserves, and promotes the polyphonic song of Epirus (added in 2020 to the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices), and “Byzantine Chant,” included in 2019 in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
It is also noted that the first country to speak in favor of the establishment of World Greek Language Day at the UNESCO session was Haiti, which was also the first country in the world to recognize the Greek Revolution and the independence of Greece as a sovereign state.
Finally, the decision’s text was drafted in collaboration between the Permanent Delegation of Greece to UNESCO and professors Georgios Babiniotis, emeritus linguist and former rector of the University of Athens, and Christos Klairis.
